Dusty Baker Men Quotations

He's strong. He's going to love Wrigley Field. He has tremendous sock to left field and to left-center. He doesn't hit the ball up in the air. He keeps it relatively low. The ball jumps off his bat. So far I like his swing. He can hit that fastball, which is where it starts.

The elements were with us tonight. We thought spring was here and winter showed up again. I guess that's Chicago.

I'm a strong man, and usually I get over hurts and it makes me stronger when I come back.

He's a physical, mental and medical marvel. The unbelievable part is that you don't see any decline. If anything, you see an incline.

He's one of the premier leadoff men in the game. Anybody that follows baseball knows it's tougher to find a good leadoff man than a good power hitter. We're very, very excited to have Juan Pierre.

He's earned it. It couldn't happen to a finer young man. The whole city of Sacramento is probably proud of him.

You're always concerned about it and you wonder how they're going to handle it. We've only played a few games. It's a period of adjustment for anybody changing leagues. You don't know the pitchers, you don't know the umpires, you don't know the philosophy of the pitching coach on the other side -- especially when you've been in the other league.

He is making progress. He hit on the field so that's a big improvement right there, so will keep our fingers crossed.

This is judgment time for who's going to be playing next year too. You're not only playing for now. You're playing for 2006 as well.

This is judgement time for who is going to be here and who's going to be playing next year, too,

Maybe I shouldn't have cursed. I had just given him the highest compliment last week when I said he's one of the pitchers I respect most in the league, because he doesn't clown, he doesn't showboat. He just pitches.

They hit some balls on the nose. The elements were with us tonight. This is sort of strange. You think spring is here, then winter shows back up again, I guess that is Chicago; you've just got to deal with it.

It certainly doesn't help the situation. It's a period of adjustment (for Jones), changing leagues. You got to give it some time.

I don't want to get off on that too much. There's always an adjustment no matter where you go.

He puts pressure on the opposition. He brings a different dimension to our lineup so we can play small ball and set up the guys behind him to play long ball as well.

The main thing is for us to dwell on the solution and not the problem. Just be more alert and more advantageous of all situations, not create advantageous situations for them with mental and physical errors.